A Legendre Spectral Element Method for the Rotational Navier-Stokes Equations

Author: Anthony Harkin (Rochester Institute of Technology)

Abstract

A spectrally accurate numerical scheme that is suitable for computations of rotating fluid flows in complex geometries will be presented. The primary focus of the computations is to assist in the design of a new centrifugal spectrometer. The numerical scheme employed is based on the spectral element method introduced by A. Patera for the solution of incompressible flow problems of low to moderate Reynolds number. The method blends domain decomposition along with high order polynomial expansions over quadrilateral elements. The discretization is then achieved through a weighted-residual technique using Gaussian quadrature. Numerical results pertinent to flow in the centrifugal spectrometer will be presented.